The present invention relates to a wheelchair-fixing device for fixing a wheelchair with an occupant seated therein to a vehicle such as an automobile, to a wheelchair-loadable vehicle, and to a wheelchair system.
Nowadays, wheelchairs are widely used as simple vehicles which are necessary for permitting an occupant such as an injured person with wounded legs or a handicapped person with impaired legs to move in the seated state. Recently, automobiles provided with equipment for permitting a wheelchair with the occupant seated therein to be brought onto a rear space of the automobile in order to save the occupant's effort of riding on a seat of the automobile from the wheelchair have become popular.
When the wheelchair is put in the automobile, the wheelchair is easily unbalanced if the wheelchair is stopped only by the brake of the wheelchair. Therefore, the aforementioned rear space is required to be equipped with a fixing device for fixing the wheelchair. However, when such fixing device has a lot of members for fixing the wheelchair, the operation of fixing the wheelchair becomes troublesome. A simple operation is desired.
Accordingly, a fixing device in which a lateral portion of the wheelchair is locked by a striker type lock mechanism, which is of a type used for a door lock of an automobile or the like, and a stopper pawl projecting from a backside portion of the wheelchair is locked by an auxiliary lock mechanism has been proposed, such as can be seen in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication 2003-159282 (hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
However, the fixing device for the wheelchair as described in the aforementioned JP Publication 2003-159282 is aimed at fixing the wheelchair during normal driving of the automobile. The locking by the striker type lock mechanism slightly loosens by a load received in a certain direction. In addition, since the striker type lock mechanism is a delicate linkage, it is not designed to withstand a large load. Therefore, the fixing device can not secure the wheelchair sufficiently relative to strong impact produced by sudden stop or collision of the automobile and can not ensure the safety of the occupant.